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Published: March 5th 2009
The view from Baga Hill towards Anjuna
This was a hell of a walk but it did clear my head23rd December 2008
Pili woke up in pain this morning. While I was with the engineer yesterday she had been playing beach tennis with a couple of her adopted beach kids and had used muscles she hasn’t used for a while, poor girl.
To clear my head as I hadn’t slept well again I decide to go for a long walk, Pili wanted to phone and speak to her family anyway so I leave her at the apartment. I decide to climb Baga hill up through the jungle, WOW it gets hot and humid up there. At the top of the hill the habitat is very different to the lower, dense jungle. On the top it’s covered with low shrubs and volcanic red rocks. The raptors were very interested in me and fly just a few feet above my head, just checking me out. I also come a across a Leopard Cat padding through the jungle on the other side of an ancient wall that runs along the length of the hill. Scrambling through the vegetation I get covered it LARGE red ants, I was trying to get closer to take a photo, I have to strip off down
to my underwear and shake my hair out to make sure every last one is off me, thankfully and very surprisingly I didn’t get bitten. It goes without saying I didn’t get the Leopard Cat photo!
I decide to go down the far side of the hill that comes out near Anjuna. I walk back along the steep edge of the hill parallel to the beach to see if I can find reptiles and butterflies. The climb down is quite treacherous and with the heat (approx 35C) and with my heavy camera equipment I’m exhausted. When I finally reach the beach bar between Baga and Anjuna beach I collapse at the nearest table to the bar. I’d been walking for about four hours over some serious terrain and now it was time for a cold beer in the shade. After an hour and with cold water stocked up I head for home. I figure I’d walked a good 10 miles today and it’s exactly what I needed to clear my head.
In the evening Pili and I call our families and also John Hutchinson. John informs us he’ll be back out here on the 4th Jan, the same
Our new friend John & Rangit
A real comedy team, thanks for the laughs guys day as our old lodger Valerie is joining us, this is really good news and it lift our spirits.
24th December 2008 CHRISTMAS EVE
After weeks of press speculation as to whether permission will be granted for the annual Christmas beach parties to go ahead, the authorities finally give it the nod. This is a huge relief to everyone. The security in the last week has really ramped up. Along the beaches the military have placed sand bag machine gun nests to ward off any new terrorist threat. I don’t think I can get used to the sight of soldiers patrolling the town and beaches, fully equipped with shiny, new rifles that Santa has handed out early this year.
We spend the day with our friends at the beach just taking it easy and looking forward to the evening’s celebrations.
In the late afternoon Pili buys a dress from one of the trader along the Calangute Rd. She pays 200Rs for a peacock blue dress which will really suit her I’m sure. With a shower and Pili modelling her new dress we head back to the beach shack.
On the way down the CSM Rd
we stop in to Nicky’s Book Shop to give Nisaar a half bottle of Honey Bee for a small Christmas present, we then arrange to meet later at the Big Banana bar next to Bobbies. We both really touched while walking down to the beach at how many seasonal greeting we received. In a short space of time we have made a lot of friends here. Every bar and resturaunt we passed we encountered people we knew and wanted to stop and talk. This hasn’t just happened tonight, it seems everywhere we go people know us. We’re always having cars, bikes and taxi pass us with people shouting out our names to say hello. I suppose we do stand out a little, it’s very nice though.
At the shack Sam, Neil their friends Baz and Lizzy were waiting for us. Everybody ate from the barbeque, Pili had King Fish which looked really good, I didn’t bother eating, as nothing took my fancy.
After the dining had finish and the plates cleared the Honey Bees came out to play. Pili got a couple down her and hit the dance floor with Lizzy and a guy called Don, he’s 62yrs
old and has the energy of a teenager. Pili danced her head off for the next few hours while Lizzy ran around with glowing devil horns on her head. She’s as mad as a bag of frogs and had us all in fits of laughter.
We also met a really nice new couple to the shack, Dee and Steve from Essex. When everybody burnt out about 1am we sat with our new buddies until five in the morning drinking and talking shit. The bar boys went asleep around us, we asked them to say if they wanted us to go but they encouraged us to stay which was fine with us.
We finally left a little worse for wear but with big smiles on our faces, I’ve concluded Christmas in Goa ROCKS!
25th December 2008 CHRISTMAS DAY
Waking at 8am I instantly started praying to baby Jesus to take me and put me out my pain. AAAHHHHH Christmas Day hangover, anyone for a curry?
Pili was in a similar state, we drank lots of water, took pain killer and slumped back into a coma until 12:30. The things we put ourselves through, It was worth
though.
When we finally arrived at the beach shack everybody was equally in poor shape. After throwing ourselves into the warm and refreshing ocean we joined Jersey and Jordie John who had just ordered large Bloody Mary’s. Now that seemed like a good idea, the traditional hangover cure. The first couple went down very easily and it seemed to do the trick quite nicely. After we’d had our forth things started to get a little messy and Geordie John sloped off to KC’s bar. Another dip in the sea was called for then Pili and I headed back to the apartment for some down time, well this was our good intentions. On the way back we again ran into the Jordie John sat outside KC’s. Several other people we new were also there, so yeah you’ve guessed it, we had a beer. John was really hammered but still extremely funny. He’s a real gentleman and very warm with people, nobody has a bad word against him here. Pili is constantly cracking up with him, partly because of what comes out of his mouth, but also because of his strong Newcastle accent. It amazes me that she can understand a
Xmas Eve
We've found Santa going to work word cause I struggle sometimes.
Pili borrowed a scooter from a guy called Ken who we know from the bar, she raced back to the flat to shower, I stay with the guys and await her return. When she gets back after what was undoubtedly a hair rising journey through the traffic on the Baga Rd we make our excuses and head to the next bar down, Bobbies Sports Bar for Pizza, we figured if we go home now the day is over.
After eating Pili gets the bill and I decide to go check on John next door and get him a taxi if he needs one. It was fruitless exercise as he’d already left. As I stepped out of the bar onto the road I hear a loud BEEP, BEEP and the next thing I’m up in the air with a moped sliding underneath me as I found myself falling back to ground in what seemed like slow motion. I broke my fall thankfully and leapt on the guy who was lying next to the fallen moped. The guy turned out to be a kid of no more than 15yrs old. This fact probably stopped me
from cuffing him. I gave him a mouthful about slowing down and that if he’d have hit one of the numerous kids or women always on this road he’d have probably killed them. He just looked at me terrified and leapt on his bike and speeded away. When I turned around the road was full of Indians staring at me. What was even stranger was that some of them told me to calm down and tried to blame me for the whole thing!!!! I assured them that I was calm because if I wasn’t the kid wouldn’t have got away without a good shoeing. I pointed out the he could have killed anyone else and it was lucky I’m a big guy and I knew how to break my fall. Only one young kid of no more than twelve asked me if I was ok. I was really surprised at how at any possible sign of trouble the locals all pull together and worse pretend they saw nothing or just bare face lie.
By now the commotion had emptied the bars. Pili came over and I lead her back to Bobbies assuring her that I was fine. I slammed
a stiff Honey Bee and double checked I wasn’t broken in anyway, thankfully apart from a small graze on my elbow I was fully functional. Sam and Neil then showed up so we stayed and played darts for an hour or so.
The last week has been very strange for me, with the trouble with my hard drive and now being run over, it’ll certainly be a Christmas to remember.
Roll on New Year.
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Geordie John Frain
non-member comment
Friends in goa
Hia John & pili how you keeping ok I hope aim still in goa every year all there as well apart from ranjit he is no longer with us all the best Geordie John